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the SAPLING society is a group of makers, designers, and artists trying to spread the love of all things handmade. we embrace sustainability and eschew mass production.

Monday, February 19, 2007

minutes of 2/4/07 meeting

well, our first meeting of 2007 was really fun and inspiring! we were hosted by lena at her lovely home in fort greene, brooklyn. in attendance were lena, myself, jen, caitlin, sherise and angie. oh, and of course gus and gertie!

our first topic was the introduction of two new saplings. first is angie, of a.s.i.s. (angela spencer's irresistable stuff) who participated in our sample sale back in november. she told us a little about her business and her goal of selling to more stores this year. the second is alisa, who is based in L.A. and will be one of our west coast correspondants. alisa is a multi-media artist and designer.

we also bid farewell (geographically speaking) to jen of raeburn ink. jen is moving to humboldt county in northern california and we will miss her, though like alisa and alice, she can still be an active SAPLING through the blog! we look forward to seeing how raeburn ink will emerge as a california company.

next we each reviewed our accomplishments in 2006 and our plans and goals for 2007. this conversation segued into one about designing textile swatches to be repped by a print studio, which seems like a flexible and fun possible source of extra income that several of us are interested in pursuing...

sales venues were also discussed. i personally am planning to open an etsy shop as a way to sell odds and ends and pieces that come back from consignment at the end of each season. several of us expressed a desire to transition from selling our goods on consignment to wholesaling them outright. caitlin advised skipping a season in order to make a collection of samples 6 months ahead (fashion week schedule), when stores are placing orders. we also talked about showrooms vs. repping ourselves, and sharing space during trade shows (ideally nearby but not IN the show as they are prohibitively expensive for most of us) to show our collections to buyers.

we are hoping to have another sample sale this spring, on the sidewalk outside treehouse.

finally, lena showed us her studio and gave us a sneak preview of her upcoming book. it may still be top secret so i won't say any more for now, but we'll keep you informed as it progresses for sure...

i think that covers it, but as usual, if i left anything out, please post it!

1 comment:

I just had a bunch of my meetings with buyers and found out most of them really don't enjoy going to the trade shows. Having a space near by the shows was great though. they came by on there way to or from the show and were much happier to be in a nicer enviroment. just though you might like to know since we mentioned this at the meeting.